American Exceptualism Rudy
Giuliani was espousing his opinion to Fox News that Barack Obama did not
love America and didn’t brag enough about “American Exceptionalism.”

Fur Is Not Chic When my 25-pound
dog stepped in a toothed steel leg hold trap a few ft off the trail, I
learned how “unchic” fur is. I had to carry her out two miles to get to a
vet.

Which Is More Dangerous? Just
a couple of thoughts I had in response to the letters by Gordon Lee
Dean and Jarin Weber in the Feb. 23 issue. Mr. Dean claims that there
have been zero deaths from the measles in the past ten years.

Real Action on Climate In
“Climate Madness” in the Feb. 9 issue, the writer points out that
scientists are all but unanimous and that large numbers of people agree:
global warming poses a threat to future generations.

Real Science Wolfgang
Pauli, the Nobel Prize winning Austrian-born theoretical physicist, was
known not only for his work in postulating the existence of the
neutrino but feared for his razor-edged humor.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Back to the BasicsMy dad worked on his fathers farm outside Rockford until he was in his early 30s, just as countless sons had done for thousands of years before him.He started out plowing the fields with a team of horses, tilling up the arrowheads of the Ottawa and Pottawatomi that my brother and I still own today. Later came a tractor, but not much in the way of a paycheck. Yet with his food and board covered by the farm, Dad was able to throw nearly every cent he earned into savings because there was no greater virtue in our family than thrift.Dads family had survived the Great Depression by dint of the fact that they were able to grow their own food. Their one misadventure was when some desperate people stole a pile of newly-harvested beans. Mom had lived the dirt-poor life on a farm too. By the time I came along, my parents were what would be considered the working poor today. Dad had saved enough to buy a Ford (no car payments, of course) and our family lived in a succession of run-down rental homes.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Those of us who live here were thrilled that ABCs Good Morning Americashow cited the Sleeping Bear Dunes as being the most beautiful place inthe country last week. I myself put a link to the news clip on myFacebook page to brag about my hometown to friends living overseas. On the other hand, if you look at other beautiful places around thecountry -- Carmel, Cape Cod, Bar Harbor, Hilton Head, Jacksons Hole,etc. -- its pretty clear what happens when you start waving thefigurative red cape in the bull ring of the national media.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
If you happened to be enjoying the beaches of Northern Michigan in thesummer of 1811, chances are you were a member of the Chippewa or OdawaIndian tribes.Imagine living in a bark lodge along Lake Michigan or the inland lakesthat summer. Much of the season was spent fishing and drying the catch inpreparation for the winter to come. Nights were spent under a fresco ofstars that we rarely see these days, yet these stars had gazed down on away of life that had existed along these shores for thousands of years.Next year, we will honor the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812 betweenBritain and the United States -- a country which was barely out of itscradle at the time. Northern Michigan played a key role in the war, andthe Mackinac Straits in particular were of global strategic importance.So lets set the Wayback Machine for the summer before the war to set thestage for what well be celebrating this time next year.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
The True BelieversBlogging is where its at these days for alternative newspapers servingthe largest cities in America.Blogging about local theater, trendy cocktails, city politics, transgenderissues, bicycling, Lithuanian hip-hop, video dating for dogs & cats...pretty much anything an inspired (and often unpaid) blogger is willing topeck out on a keyboard.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
The 27 Club They tried to make me go to rehab and I said no, no, no... -- Rehab by Amy WinehouseSome 2,500 years ago, Buddha offered the advice that the best path throughlife is the middle way. The former prince who gave up his kingdom andall its pleasures to live naked and alone in the forest prior to becominga holy man learned that too much or too little of anything was no good. In particular, he meant money, fame and power.We seldom think about the benefits of the middle way here in the Westwhere songs such as If I Had a Million Dollars by The Barenaked Ladiesand I Want to Be a Billionaire (so freakin bad) by Travie McCoy spellout the daydreams of millions of people. Winning the lottery, bagging thecute bachelor on TV, dancing to the stars and the meth-rush euphoria ofbeing named an Idol are the dreams of our society as expressed in themedia. No one wants to get voted off the island, even though that mightoffer a saner, happier life.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
There were a lot of complaints about the heat at the Ride Around Torchbike tour a week ago, followed by a lot of complaints by the public atlarge throughout the next few days.Most cyclists rode a 63-mile loop around Torch Lake in Antrim County. Atthe bayside park in Elk Rapids where the tour wrapped up, many talkedabout how tough it was cycling the last few miles of hills in the90-degree heat, glaring sun and high humidity.Then we packed up our bikes, climbed into our monster SUVs andemission-friendly pickup trucks and took off down the highway, no doubt tocrank up the AC at home, doing our bit with the rest of the human race topump 90 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere every day ofthe year.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Whats NewNew in this issue is a Public Safety Map on page 12 which will include asnapshot of crime in the region -- assault, robbery, B&Es, drug busts andcar thefts -- as well as brief reports on emergency events such asdrownings and major collisions.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Losing Our TraditionsFor more than 20 years now, my wife has marched her little flock of daycare kids downtown to take rides on the pint-sized train at the formerClinch Park Zoo. Many of the kids are now grown and have children oftheir own. They too are devotees of the Spirit of Traverse City, carryingon a tradition that fills a childs heart with joy and the air withlaughter and the sound of a chugging choo-choo.But those sounds will cease forever after Labor Day when the old bugabooof budget concerns and other priorities kill off the little engine thatcould. As noted in an article in this issue by Pat Sullivan, the parkdesigners ditched the train as being inconvenient when they re-imaginedthe bayfront.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Paying for that Vacation... Since there will be upwards of 500,000 people in town for the National Cherry Festival this week, this seems a likely time to talk about how to pay for that vacation you‘ve been dreaming of all year.How can one afford to travel up north for a week of carnival rides, hotels at premium rates, wine tours and dinners by the Bay? Not to mention expensive destinations all over the world?Easy: save your money.Okay, that seems like a no-brainer, but most of us have a tough time saving for college tuition or a new car, much less a frivolous vacation. The most common complaint I hear from my non-traveling friends is that they “can‘t afford to go anywhere.“Translation: they failed to plan for one of the most soul-nourishing events you can do for yourself and your family each year.Those who do bite the bullet and go on vacation anyway often ‘put it on the card,‘ creating an unhappy post-trip experience for the payee, much like when the Christmas credit card bills come rolling in come January.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
If youve watched any TV at all in recent months youve been waterboardedwith a flood of ads lambasting the Government Bridge proposed to linkDetroit and Windsor in Canada.These commercials have all the nuance of a wedding cake sliced with a meataxe. Its a wonder they dont refer to the project as the GubmintBridge for Snuffy Smith types who cant handle three syllables.Backing the commercials is billionaire Manuel Matty Moroun, an84-year-old trucking tycoon who owns the Ambassador Bridge which links theU.S. to Canada. Moroun purchased the Ambassador Bridge 32 years ago andhas owned a monopoly over one of Americas busiest and most importanttrade routes ever since.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Northern Michigans Top AdventuresWhen most people think of adventure in Northern Michigan, they tend toimagine a weekend with the kids at the beach or an afternoon at one of ourwater parks.A pity, because mile-for-mile, Northern Michigan packs more outdooradventures than almost any similar-sized region on earth. Only a fewstandouts such as Costa Rica, New Zealand and the Hawaiian Islands comeclose, and we dare say that the cultural and dining offerings in our manybeach towns help to even that score.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
Saw a huge fox trotting alongside Crystal Lake in Benzie County aweek ago. At first I thought it was a German Shepherd because itlooked to be about four feet long from nose to tail; but drawingcloser, its low stature and rust-red fur revealed it to be a vulpesvulpes, or red fox, for those of you who no longer speak‘a da Latin. Anyway, this proud fox was trotting along unconcernedly by the side ofthe road with a fresh baby bunny in its jaws, probably heading home toits den to feed the kits. Oh how I would love to borrow that fox for a weekend at the Downeshousehold where we are in the midst of a chipmunk and squirrelpopulation explosion.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
How We Got Started: 20 Years Before the Masthead Simply put, Northern Express Weekly got started with an idea by my friend and co-publisher George Foster in the fall of 1990: What would you think of starting a newspaper about sports and fitness? he asked one day as we were out running. Well, hell yes, why not? In one of those lucky coincidences, we had a synchronicity of talents and experience: George was a certified public accountant, while I had been a reporter and editor in Detroit-area newspapers and a writer for hospital public relations. We were deep into the running, triathlon and XC-skiing boom of the 80s, and also habitues of the local nightlife scene. Both of us had grown bored with our respective careers as well as the racing scene, so the idea of launching a newspaper was mesmerizing. Thats what launching a new business is like: its a fever that consumes your every waking moment. Soon, that fever was generating ideas for our new paper. We decided that the publication would need a larger scope to succeed; for starters, the region lacked an alternative newspaper similar to Detroits Metro Times, devoted to the arts, local issues, nightlife and the underside of the community.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
A Swinging SituationMalaysian Airlines offers a friendly reminder and a cheery welcome to thecountry in big block letters in its flight magazine:BE FOREWARNED DEATH FOR DRUG TRAFFICKERS UNDER MALAYSIAN LAW.That message is repeated on the documents you sign when you cross theborder, and in case your reading skills are not so hot, the country usedto thoughtfully scatter billboards around picturing drug dealers hangingby their necks from scaffolds.

Random ThoughtsRobert Downes
There seemed to be more panhandlers than ever on a trip to Chicago thisspring. Especially along Michigan Avenue south of the river it was likerunning a gauntlet, with needy faces floating up like balloons fromhoodies and ear-flap hats every 100 yards or so along the sidewalk.Can you spare me something? Im hungry... God bless you, have a good day...Its not long before you find yourself avoiding eye contact. Im notaverse to giving money to street people, but theyve got to have anobvious mental disability or missing a limb to qualify, and some of thepeople we saw on Michigan Ave. looked like pros or anemic junkies